[Angry_White_Man_Syndrome]

Most do. What they really need is a response team that is trained to not only escape an attack, but kill the attackers.

I was in the Navy working in Special Ops for 10 years. I have conducted ship attacks like this in training. It is a very dangerous undertaking. Just imagine holding a 30ft fiberglass boat next to a ship for 2 min, while the ship is actively tring to evade you. We only used our oldest boats for this because the amount of damage they substained when the ship got the better of us. However, it is possible to get a SEAL team aboard a ship in less than 90 seconds.

The ship was lucky that it did not happen at night. The outcome may have been very different. Sounds like the cruise line could make a wise investment by hiring some ex-spec op guys to provide security. I know a few that would work cheap if geetin the same VIP treatment was part of the deal.

[Travis McGee]

See the pic at 39. Looks like a grapnel hook forward. I'm guessing their aim was a SEAL-style underway ship boarding, but they were spotted and the ship took evasive maneuvers early, not giving them a steady hull to hook onto.

Typically ships have low catwalks and entrances on their sterns, no more than 20 feet off of the water. The goal is to put a grapnel with a rope/wire ladder onto one of these, and send a fast boarding team up to protect this area while the rest board. Then they dash for the bridge, shooting anybody in their way, to commandeer the ship.

After that, it's anybody's guess if this was motivated by greed or Allah, or both.

But pirates who will rob and murder folks on 40 foot sailboats for their watches, cash, binos, electronics etc. would have hit a humongous payday on this ship. Their watches alone would be worth a million dollars. This would have been like knocking over Fort Knox or Las Vegas, by their scale of reckoning.

[seadevil]

I know a few that would work cheap if geetin the same VIP treatment was part of the deal.

So do I... ;)